Smalltalk in a Nutshell

S.Ducasse 1

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

Stéphane DucasseStephane.Ducasse@univ-savoie.frhttp://www.listic.univ-savoie.fr/~ducasse/

Smalltalk in a Nutshell

S.Ducasse 2

License: CC-Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

S.Ducasse 3

Goals•Syntax in a Nutshell•OO Model in a Nutshell

S.Ducasse 4

Smalltalk OO Model• ***Everything*** is an object

Only message passing Only late binding

• Instance variables are private to the object• Methods are public• Everything is a pointer

• Garbage collector• Single inheritance between classes• Only message passing between objects

S.Ducasse 5

Complete Syntax on a PostCard

exampleWithNumber: x“A method that illustrates every part of Smalltalk method syntax except primitives. It has unary, binary, and key word messages, declares arguments and temporaries (but not block temporaries), accesses a global variable (but not and instance variable), uses literals (array, character, symbol, string, integer, float), uses the pseudo variable true false, nil, self, and super, and has sequence, assignment, return and cascade. It has both zero argument and one argument blocks. It doesn’t do anything useful, though”

|y|true & false not & (nil isNil) ifFalse: [self halt].y := self size + super size.#($a #a ‘a’ 1 1.0)

do: [:each | Transcript show: (each class name);show: (each printString);

show: ‘ ‘].^ x < y

S.Ducasse 6

Language Constructs^ return

“ comments # symbol or array ‘ string [ ] block or byte array .separator and not terminator (or namespace access in VW) ;cascade (sending several messages to the same instance) |local or block variable := assignment $ character :end of selector name e, r number exponent or radix ! file element separator <primitive: ...> for VM primitive calls

S.Ducasse 7

Syntaxcomment: “a comment”character: $c $h $a $r $a $c $t $e $r $s $# $@ string: ‘a nice string’ ‘lulu’ ‘l’’idiot’symbol: #mac #+ array: #(1 2 3 (1 3) $a 4)byte array: #[1 2 3]integer: 1, 2r101real: 1.5, 6.03e-34,4, 2.4e7float: 1/33boolean: true, falsepoint: 10@120

Note that @ is not an element of the syntax, but just a message sent to a number. This is the same for /, bitShift, ifTrue:, do: ...

S.Ducasse 8

Syntax in a Nutshell (II)assigment: var := aValueblock: [:var ||tmp| expr...]

temporary variable: |tmp|block variable: :varunary message: receiver selectorbinary message: receiver selector argumentkeyword based: receiver keyword1: arg1 keyword2: arg2...cascade: message ; selector ...separator: message . messageresult: ^parenthesis: (...)

S.Ducasse 9

Messages vs. a predefined Syntax• In Java, C, C++, Ada constructs like >>, if, for, etc.

are hardcoded into the language grammar• In Smalltalk there are just messages defined on

objects• (>>) bitShift: is just a message sent to numbers

– 10 bitShift: 2• (if) ifTrue: is just messages sent to a boolean

– (1> x) ifTrue: • (for) do:, to:do: are just messages to collections

or numbers– #(a b c d) do: [:each | Transcript show: each ; cr]– 1 to: 10 do: [:i | Transcript show: each printString; cr]

• Minimal parsing• Language is extensible

S.Ducasse 10

•Class Definition: A message sent to a namespace

Smalltalk defineClass: #NameOfClass superclass: #{NameOfSuperclass}

indexedType: #none private: false

instanceVariableNames: '' classInstanceVariableNames: '' imports: '' category: 'Browser-Commands'

Class Definition in VW

S.Ducasse 11

NameOfSuperclass subclass: #NameOfClass

instanceVariableNames: 'instVarName1'classVariableNames: 'classVarName1'poolDictionaries: ''category: 'LAN'

Class Definition in Squeak

S.Ducasse 12

Method Definition•Normally defined in a browser or (by directly

invoking the compiler)•Methods are public •Always return self

Node>>accept: thePacket "If the packet is addressed to me, print it. Else just behave like a normal node"

(thePacket isAddressedTo: self) ifTrue: [self print: thePacket] ifFalse: [super accept: thePacket]

S.Ducasse 13

Instance Creation: Messages Too!

• ‘1’, ‘abc’

•Basic class creation messages are new, new:, basicNew, basicNew:Monster new

•Class specific message creation (messages sent to classes)Tomagoshi withHunger: 10

S.Ducasse 14

Messages and their Composition• Three kinds of messages

– Unary: Node new– Binary: 1 + 2, 3@4– Keywords: aTomagoshi eat: #cooky

furiously: true

– Message Priority• (Msg) > unary > binary > keywords• Same Level from left to right

• Example:• (10@0 extent: 10@100) bottomRight• s isNil ifTrue: [ self halt ]

S.Ducasse 15

• Anonymous method• Passed as method argument or stored• Functions

fct(x)= x*x+3, fct(2). fct :=[:x| x * x + 3]. fct value: 2

Integer>>factorial tmp:= 1. 2 to: self do: [:i| tmp := tmp * i]

#(1 2 3) do: [:each | Transcript show: each printString ; cr]

Blocks

S.Ducasse 16

SummaryObjects and MessagesThree kinds of messages

unarybinarykeywords

Block: a.k.a innerclass or closures or lambdaUnary>Binary>Keywords

S.Ducasse 17

Goals•Syntax in a Nutshell•OO Model in a Nutshell

S.Ducasse 18

Instance and Class•Only one model•Uniformly applied•Classes are objects too

S.Ducasse 19

Lookup…Class + Inheritance

1

2

S.Ducasse 20

Classes are objects too• Instance creation is just a message send to

a ... Class•Same method lookup than with any other

objects• a Class is the single instance of

amanonymous class• Point is the single instance of Point class

S.Ducasse 21

Class Parallel Inheritance

S.Ducasse 22

Lookup and Class Methods

1

2

1

2

Workstation withName: ‘BigMac’

aWorkstation name

S.Ducasse 23

About the Buttons

S.Ducasse 24

Summary- Everything is an object- One single model- Single inheritance- Public methods- Private attribute- Classes are simply objects too- Class is instance of another class- One unique method lookup look in the class of the receiver